Staff here at our hotel (more on that later) called a local doctor to come in to see Mary. We were getting concerned that she might not be able to fly out on Wednesday. Doctor arrived within the hour -- pretty good for a Sunday morning on national election day. Doctor speaks fluent English, practices out of local hospital and teaches at a local medical school. Good bedside manner, spent plenty of time with Mary, took a medical history, took blood pressure and otherwise did what doctors do, and was very patient with Mary's lost voice. Diagnosed Mary's condition, told her to quit taking her current medicines, gave her 2 prescriptions that he said would have her up and about quickly, and cleared her to travel once the new medicines kicked in. Doctor was with us about half an hour. Total cost -- $40.
Hotel staffer volunteered to walk with me to the nearest pharmacia -- a block away. He helped with the pharmacist. Prescription filled in 5 minutes. Total cost of meds (steroid nasal spray and week's worth of non-drowsy decongestant) was $22. I was glad the staffer came with me, because I hadn't brought enough cash. Staffer kicked in $5 of his own money to get us out of there.
Oh, and the doctor gave us his personal cell phone number and asked us to call him if we needed anything else.
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